'\" t
.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1991, 1993
.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
.\"
.\"     @(#)getloadavg.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
.\"
.\" 2007-12-08, mtk, Converted from mdoc to man macros
.\"
.TH getloadavg 3 2024-05-02 "Linux man-pages 6.9.1"
.SH NAME
getloadavg \- get system load averages
.SH LIBRARY
Standard C library
.RI ( libc ", " \-lc )
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B #include <stdlib.h>
.P
.BI "int getloadavg(double " loadavg[] ", int " nelem );
.fi
.P
.RS -4
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see
.BR feature_test_macros (7)):
.RE
.P
.BR getloadavg ():
.nf
    Since glibc 2.19:
        _DEFAULT_SOURCE
    In glibc up to and including 2.19:
        _BSD_SOURCE
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.BR getloadavg ()
function returns the number of processes in the system run queue
averaged over various periods of time.
Up to
.I nelem
samples are retrieved and assigned to successive elements of
.IR loadavg[] .
The system imposes a maximum of 3 samples, representing averages
over the last 1, 5, and 15 minutes, respectively.
.SH RETURN VALUE
If the load average was unobtainable, \-1 is returned; otherwise,
the number of samples actually retrieved is returned.
.SH ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
.BR attributes (7).
.TS
allbox;
lbx lb lb
l l l.
Interface	Attribute	Value
T{
.na
.nh
.BR getloadavg ()
T}	Thread safety	MT-Safe
.TE
.SH STANDARDS
BSD.
.SH HISTORY
4.3BSD-Reno, Solaris.
glibc 2.2.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR uptime (1),
.BR proc (5)
